Pathway to Preeminence

As a student, President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 spent time dreaming—not about personal aspirations or future possessions, but about Morehouse College.

“I remember that I used to dream about this being a better place. I used to imagine and envision this campus as already whole,” he said. “Seriously, I saw it in my mind’s eye.”

Back then, to stir change, he wielded the power of the pen, writing litanies on the shortcomings of his beloved alma mater in the student newspaper, The Maroon Tiger.

Now, more than three decades later, he has returned to Morehouse to create change, and this time girded with remarkable fundraising successes and administrative expertise, as well as experience as the executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, where he served as a liaison between historically black institutions and the White House.

His dream is aflame. And pen and paper have been replaced by position and unabashed passion.

“As your 11th president, I insist that Morehouse College was created to be preeminent. And I saw that when I sat where you are sitting today,” he said.

“I saw a better Morehouse. Now I stand here to make a better Morehouse.”

Dream On

On the occasion of his inaugural Opening Convocation address, President Wilson assessed the capacity crowd in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.

More than 2,000 students—many dressed in suit and tie—were before him.

He declared that some of them were dreamers—like himself, like King ’48 and like a fellow alumnus president, Hugh M. Gloster ‘31.

“It matters that you are sitting here and dreaming right now,” he said to the men of Morehouse. “What you can envision now may have a lot to do with what you can achieve later.”

The advantage of the presidency gives him the platform to elevate his 34-year-old dream into a shared and collective vision. And his vision is as panoramic—folding in elements of the past, present and future—as it is rare: preeminence in both capital and character.

“Preeminence in capital and character is a powerful combination seldom exhibited by institutions of higher education,” he conceded.

As Wilson explained, some schools have capital preeminence, including large and growing endowments; infrastructure with state-of-the-art facilities; and numerous and generous scholarships packages.

Others, however, possess character preeminence: a calling to cultivate distinctive values so that they produce students who serve their community in outstanding ways, he said.

Morehouse is among these institutions.

“Through our character preeminence, we have contributed mightily to this society,” said Wilson, adding that many institutions have not produced a transformational leader like King; an Olympian like Edwin Moses ‘78; an award-winning filmmaker like Spike Lee ’79; a disease-eradicator like Donald Hopkins 62‘; or a political analyst like Jamal Simmons ‘93.

But Dr. Wilson’s vision is not of capital or character preeminence. It’s of capital and character preeminence.

“In my mind, we don’t have to choose. It’s not an either-or proposition. At Morehouse, we can have both. At Morehouse, we must have both,” he said.

Freedom Bound

Every path, regardless of how it winds or the detours that happen along the way, leads to a destination.

Admittedly, the College has traversed some rocky patches recently, including a reduction in staff that saw the elimination of 75 full-time jobs; a decrease in enrollment precipitated by an economic climate that makes a college education increasingly more difficult to afford and cooled philanthropic giving,

But President Wilson insists that the pathway to preeminence releases Morehouse from the shackles of an “inefficient level of capital.”

“Unshackled, we can do amazingly more. We can advance our mission; produce more and better Morehouse Men who will lead and transform our world,” he said. “Capital preeminence, at its heart, is a vision of freedom.”

And until then, he said, “We are not yet free.”

His step-by-step plan down the path to preeminence involves recovering, uncovering and discovering.

The College recovers, he said, by taking a look at what is not working and fixing it.

“We will look at academic processes and systems, infrastructure, customer service…. None of us can honestly say these are operating optimally to produce Morehouse Men,” he said to applause.

The second step, uncovering, will entail finding what has worked in the past and making the best use of it now. Besides the exceptionally strong Morehouse Man brand, the College has earned laurels for student development—laurels that, today, the College may be resting on.

To strengthen what Wilson described as “not as robust” student development performance, the College will embrace new approaches to teaching and learning; support and develop faculty; enhance curriculum; ensure affordability; and increase the graduation rate.

Finally, the College will discover—or become aware of something for the first time.

“What is not here that should be here—and how do we get it here?” asked Wilson.

Discovery, as he outlined, will include strengthening the College’s research capacity; creating new administrative systems with a higher grade of professionalism; and assembling a world-class administrative team.

“We must discover new ways for Morehouse to be Morehouse—especially operationally,” said Wilson.

As the College celebrates the 100th anniversary of being named Morehouse, Wilson said, “This is the ideal time for us to surge again to be what we were created to be.”